Lady Mondegreen Ate Nine Eggcorns Quiz

Answer: And laid him on the green.

Sylvia Wright invented the word for an article in "Harper's Magazine" in 1954. You can find other mondegreens from songs in a funtrivia quiz by Ben3--just search for "mondegreen"!

Answer: acorn

Linguists Geoffrey Pullum and Mark Lieberman are credited with inventing the term "eggcorn" in 2003 to describe a misheard word or phrase that has an ironic sort of logic about it. The difference between an eggcorn and a mondegreen is vague, but mondegreens are usually mishearings of verse, in a song or a poem, while an eggcorn is the mishearing of an ordinary word or phrase that makes a quirky kind of sense and is usually not discovered until the person tries to look it up or someone else laughs at it.

Answer: It's a dog-eat-dog world.

Linguistics professor Richard Veit was credited in a 'Jeopardy' question for his scholarly discussion of the ubiquitous phenomenon of "doggy dog" for "dog-eat-dog" in a plethora of college English papers. (In fact, some students manage to get "doggy dog" and "plethora" into the same paragraph!) Dr. Veit, who was nannywoo's professor and later her colleague, took great pride in being in a 'Jeopardy' question.

Answer: With th'angelic host proclaim....

The eldest member of nannywoo's church, Harold Dubach, thought the hymn was titled "Hark, the Harold Angels Sing" and was proud to be included in the angelic host.

Answer: Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life....

The "Good Mrs. Murphy" version appeared in the article in which Sylvia Wright first coined the word "mondegreen" (based on her own mishearing of the lyrics of a folk song). The substitution of the name "Shirley" for the adverb "surely" has led to many jokes, including Leslie Nielson's classic line "And, don't call me Shirley" in the movie "Airplane" in 1980.

Answer: Getting up at the crack of dawn.

The origin of the phrase "crack of dawn" is debated, but it may have to do with the "breaking" of dawn coming in an instant, the idea of "getting cracking" or getting started quickly, or "cracking more sail" in nautical terms. Incredibly, many people in the U.S. have merged the "crack of dawn" idiom with the anatomically descriptive "butt crack" (or even less savory terms), actually thinking this is the original saying.

Answer: layman's terms

While "layman's terms" is correct, "lame man's terms" is increasingly heard, the logic presumably being that one is a bit "lame" if one must have the language dummied down. However, there is nothing pejorative about "layman's terms": no one can be expected to know the jargon and specialized language of every area of work or study.

The term originated from "laity" vs. "clergy" in the church, but came to mean non-professionals vs. professionals in any field.

Answer: Go to hell and wait, because it will be a long time before you get it, if ever.

A physical therapy assistant at the hospital told nannywoo that this practical joke was played on him and now he can't meet a woman named Helen and keep a straight face.

Answer: duct tape

An American company has capitalized on the ambiguous origins of the word and now uses "Duck Tape" as a brand name for its tape, but "duct tape" has the generic name for the product since the 1950s, immediately after its wide use during World War II. It may have originally been made with cotton "duck" material but has nothing to do with waterfowl. Duct tape, which now comes in vibrant colors, has thousands of uses, although only a heat-resistant variety of tape, not the original, is used for coupling sections of venting duct together.

Answer: the undertow

While John Irving may or may not have made up this linguistically derived fear, many eggcorns (misunderstood words) have their origins in childhood. The "scary" children's song "Seven Ate Nine" recorded by Barenaked Ladies plays with the possible horror (and humor) lurking for children learning to count their numbers!